Middletown's healing process

Monday

Dec 31, 2007 at 2:00 AM

MIDDLETOWN — Five years after his arrest, Robert Sigler's crime still looms over the Middletown schools. In January 2003, then-Superintendent Sigler was charged with sodomizing a 14-year-old high school student who he claimed he was mentoring. Sigler pleaded guilty and went to prison. Since then, the district spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawsuits spawned by the case. "I believe that there's some significant healing process, and that we have moved beyond the Sigler event," said Superintendent Ken Eastwood, who was hired a year after Sigler's plea. "Unfortunately, it's an example of how much damage one individual can cause."

Heather Yakin

MIDDLETOWN — Five years after his arrest, Robert Sigler's crime still looms over the Middletown schools.

In January 2003, then-Superintendent Sigler was charged with sodomizing a 14-year-old high school student who he claimed he was mentoring. Sigler pleaded guilty and went to prison. Since then, the district spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawsuits spawned by the case.

"I believe that there's some significant healing process, and that we have moved beyond the Sigler event," said Superintendent Ken Eastwood, who was hired a year after Sigler's plea. "Unfortunately, it's an example of how much damage one individual can cause."

After the arrest, the school board backed into defensive mode, said Richard Zuckerman, one of the district's lawyers. "Sigler was sensational because he was a superintendent," Zuckerman said.

Then came the lawsuits.

Sigler, suspended without pay upon his arrest, sued for back pay and lost. He resigned in July 2003, as part of the guilty plea.

Former high school principal Bernard Cohen, who had told a police officer of his suspicions about Sigler, was fired for failing to make a proper report and for altering some Regents test scores. Cohen's suit claimed his firing was really because he reported Sigler. His lawsuit and disciplinary hearing cost the district a total of $240,000, plus a $425,000 settlement.

Former computer network specialist Martin Milano sued, saying he was fired because he reported finding pictures of a naked male torso on Sigler's computer; the district said his job was eliminated by budget cuts. Milano's lawsuits cost the district just under $95,000, plus $350,000 to settle the case.

Clifford Moore, who was Cohen's assistant principal, sued after he was moved to a job as assistant principal in charge of alternative education, saying he was bumped for backing Cohen. Moore lost. He's now assistant principal at Truman Moon Elementary.

"Anybody that had an axe to grind with the school claimed that anything bad that happened to them was because of Sigler," Zuckerman said.

He said the district settled to cut its losses. "It was a matter of, 'enough time and money have been spent,'" he said.

It is time, Eastwood said, for Middletown to move forward.

"Unfortunately, we have to help people see beyond things like the Sigler event," Eastwood said. "It's a very, very isolated incident that doesn't speak for the district itself."